Gods Wearing Black Robes Answer Advocates' Prayers and Cancel Ritual Human Sacrifice: TX Court Halts Its Scheduled Murder of Latino Woman to Consider New Evidence [belief in Authority is Irrational]

From [HERE] Melissa Lucio was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday for the death of her 2-year-old daughter. On Monday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay, saying new evidence in the case should be considered. 

Ms. Lucio, 53-years-old, was sentenced to death in 2008 after a jury found the mother of 14 guilty of capital murder. The state argued that her daughter Mariah was the victim of abuse and that she had died of trauma to the head. 

Ms. Lucio’s attorneys have argued that their client is innocent, and that Mariah’s death was accidental, after the 2-year-old fell down a flight of stairs. They said that although Ms. Lucio originally repeatedly told the police that she didn’t kill her daughter, after a five-hour interrogation, she made a false confession. 

Five of the jurors who sentenced Ms. Lucio have since publicly questioned their decision. 

The appeals court on Monday ordered the 138th Judicial District Court of Cameron County to consider fresh evidence in the case, including “previously unavailable scientific evidence” and the accusation that the state “suppressed favorable” evidence.

“I am grateful the court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence,” Ms. Lucio said in a statement after the decision. “Mariah is in my heart today and always. I am grateful to have more days to be a mother to my children and a grandmother to my grandchildren.”

Luis Saenz, the district attorney for Cameron County, where the case was held, didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Former Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos is serving a 13-year federal sentence for bribery and extortion.

Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation at the Innocence Project and one of Ms. Lucio’s attorneys, said new evidence would exonerate her client.

“Medical evidence shows that Mariah’s death was consistent with an accident,” she said in a statement. “But for the State’s use of false testimony, no juror would have voted to convict Melissa of capital murder because no murder occurred.”

The case has garnered local, state and national attention. It was the subject of a 2020 documentary, “The State of Texas Vs. Melissa.”